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Why a 21 gun salute?
D@D
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Why do they do it?
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Steel is for guns Tupperware is for leftovers
Check, please!!
Mateomasfeo
"I am what I am!" - Popeye
The tradition of firing blank rounds from the gun batteries of both ships and fortifications as a form of salute goes back almost to the earliest days of naval guns. It apparently originated as a sign of good faith; by discharging your guns, you temporarily disarmed yourself and thereby showed yourself to have peaceful intentions. The number of guns varied from situation to situation and country to country--for many years, ships would fire up to seven guns and shore fortifications (which could store more powder) would return salutes with up to three guns for each fired by the ship. The earliest record of an American warship exchanging salutes with a shore installation occurred in October 1776, when a Continental schooner was saluted by the Danish battery at St. Croix, Virgin Islands. It was not until 1818 that the U.S. Navy issued regulations on this subject, requiring that "an officer appointed to command in chief shall be saluted on hoisting his flag." Those regulations also prescribed a 21-gun salute for the President, conforming to the number of guns that had been established as the royal salute in the British service but also corresponding to the number of states in the Union at the time, 19 for the Vice President, and 17 for cabinet members and governors. The 1821 revision changed the President's 21 guns to one gun for each state (23 at the time) and added provisions for salutes of 15 guns for major generals, 13 for brigadier generals and commodores on separate service, nine for other commodores, and seven for captains. An 1823 order provided for a 15 gun salute to the Board of Naval Commissioners visiting a ship as a body. The 1833 Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Navy raised the Vice President's salute to 21 guns, cabinet members' to 19, and the Board of Navy Commissioners to 17. It also provided for salutes of 17 guns for full admirals, 15 for vice admirals, and 13 for rear admirals, notwithstanding that none of these ranks existed at the time in the U.S. Navy. Finally, in 1843, by which time the number of states had reached 26, a new set of regulations returned the President's entitlement to the internationally recognized 21 guns, dropped the Vice President back to 19 and cabinet officers back to 17.
Salutes in the naval services are fired at five second intervals, except in the case of minute guns fired for funerals or memorials. Gun salutes are not fired between sunset and 8:00 a.m., on Sundays, or in ports where they are prohibited by local law or regulations.
Today, gun salutes are fired by the Navy under the following circumstances:
* To the flag of the President; the Secretary of State acting as special foreign representative of the President; the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Under Secretary, or Assistant Secretary of Defense; the General Counsel of the Department of Defense; or the Secretary, Under Secretary, or Assistant Secretary of the Navy; or a foreign head of state or member of a ruling family. Such a salute is fired by ships falling in line with a ship displaying one of these flags or arriving at a station where one of them is displayed. It is also fired by a flag or general officer who assumes command (or who breaks a new flag after being promoted) in the presence of a ship or station flying one of these flags. In the case of a salute to the flag of the President or a foreign head of state, all ships arriving or falling in line fire the salute. In other cases, the salute is fired only by the senior officer present. The number of guns fired for the flag of each official indicated above is shown on the table of honors.
* A 21-gun salute in honor of a nation recognized by the United States, when entering a port of that country, fired by the senior ship arriving. This salute is returned gun for gun by a ship or shore battery of the country being visited and is not fired if there is no ship or shore battery available to return it. It is also not normally fired by ships returning from temporary absences, as in the case of a U.S. ship based at a foreign port. In most cases, governments mutually waive this salute nowadays, except in the case of the most formal port visits, those known as "visits of courtesy" (OpNavInst 3128.10D).
* By the senior saluting ship or military installation present when returning a salute fired by a foreign warship entering a U.S. port. The Secretaries of the Army and Navy and the Commandant of the Coast Guard publish directives listng the forts, stations, and other installations that are designated to return such salutes at each major U.S. port, as well as ships (by class) that are designated as saluting ships.
* The senior U.S. officer and the senior flag officer of each foreign navy present in a port exchange salutes upon the arrival or departure of either, or if either hoists the flag of a higher grade in the presence of the other. Likewise, when a ship of the U.S. Navy falls in with a warship flying the flag of a flag officer, salutes are also exchanged. Each of these salutes is exchanged gun for gun.
* To U.S. civilian and military officials on official visits according to Navy Regulations and Department of Defense Directive 1005.10, the provisions of which are summarized on the table of honors. When they are prescribed for firing upon a dignitary's arrival aboard a ship or station, the first gun is fired at the conclusion of the prescribed musical honors. The honoree's personal flag (or national ensign in the case of a foreign visitor) is broken on the first gun and, if it is not to be displayed throughout the visit, hauled down at the last gun. Only officers and officials of four star rank or above ordinarily receive this salute, although the senior officer present may direct that it be fired for others when appropriate. In any case, no one below four star rank receives such a salute from the same ship or station more than once in any 12-month period.
* According to regulations, a flag officer who is the senior officer present in a port is saluted by arriving vessels, and a new senior officer arriving aboard a vessel is saluted by the former senior officer present. This practice is limited by the norm that salutes are not generally fired to officers below four-star rank, however.
* 21-gun salutes are also fired at noon on President's Day (Washington's Birthday), Memorial Day, and Independence Day, as described in the section on holidays.
Steel is for guns Tupperware is for leftovers
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